Arce Stops Silva In Five To Continue Comeback

By Jake Donovan

Jorge Arce picked up his second straight win since returning to the ring last November, the latest coming in a 5th round knockout of Aldimar Silva in their featherweight bout Saturday evening in Nogales, Mexico.

The bout was never competitive, which is to say it played out exactly as expected. Arce looked sharp in dominating every round, scoring knockdowns at the start of rounds three and five and never in any trouble prior to and up to the point of the stoppage.

Silva managed to pick himself up after getting caught mere seconds into round three. Arce was forced to work to eventually break down the Brazilian journeyman, but the seemingly reborn 34-year old was up to the task.

The crowd continued to increase in volume as one of Mexico's favorite sons continued to pick up steam. A left hook on the inside produced the bouts second knockdown, coming early into round five. Silva rose to his feet and attempted to fight back, but found himself under siege before being rescued by the referee.

The official time was 0:41 of round five.

Arce improves to 63-7-2 (48KO) with the win, his second straight. The former four-division titlist called it a career following his Dec. '12 knockout loss to Nonito Donaire, but decided he still had a little something left to offer the sport as he returned last November. Both comeback fights have taken place in the featherweight division.

Silva falls to 19-8 (10KO), having now lost five of his last six.

In the evening's co-feature, Jose Uzcategui stopped David Lopez in the sixth round of a super middleweight bout that sparked one career while perhaps ending another. A right hand floored Lopez, a former middleweight contender and spoiler, hard to end the fight, at 2:31 of round six.

Uzcategui (22-0, 18KO) has now scored five straight knockouts. Lopez, once known as a spoiler who took pride in clipping off the wings of undefeated fighters, falls to 41-14-1 (23KO). The 36-year old is just 1-2-1 in his last four fights dating back to 2011.

Opening the televised portion of the show - airing on TV Azteca and UniMas - was an unpopular decision in a matchup of unbeaten super bantamweights. Miguel Carrizosa (4-0, 1KO) scored a unanimous decision over Israel Lopez (3-1, 3KO) in a six-round bout many in attendance felt should have went the other way. Scores were 59-55 and 58-56 (twice) in favor of Carrizosa, a decision that was lustily booed by the crowd, clearly in support of Lopez, a local prospect.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com, as well as a member of the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox